Empathic Resonance is a term I use for making sure that when you sit at the table, you - the business person, designer, engineer, facilitator, innovator or design thinker are capable of speaking the same language and embodying the same feelings that others are using to interpret your message.

Acting from isolation, while looking like you are empathizing, is not only confusing but counter-productive to the flow of the communication. Empathic Resonance, on the other hand, is a felt sense that you are only part, albeit an essential part, of the formula for successful communication. The other person is, of course, as important. Each of these crucial elements, self and other, needs to self adjust and self maintain to ensure that your awareness of your participation is in equal measure to your awareness of the participation of the “other” so that your communication is successful.

Are you skillful in running your organization? If so, then you draw from the best resources you have – yours and your employees’ years of experience. However, do you exercise prudence in your application of these resources?

“What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events – the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.

How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.” -David Brooks

Reduce variability:
Develop a consistent method for assessing your interaction with others while maintaining a disciplined approach to managing and improving your performance.

Know what is going on in the room:
Value can be created whenever you interact with another person. Develop curiosity about the value of each interaction and employ a relational readiness that encourages open and genuine connection.

Develop a clear understanding of the people you interact with:
Build rapport through an enhanced ability to connect and learn to maintain high quality feedback of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral information.

Be free to express yourself:
Acquire knowledge without self-limiting interference. Be able to distinguish between your perceptions and your projections.

Negotiate barriers:
Understand the dynamic variables at play when challenged to face the limitations of your motivation and performance.

Manage what is on the table:
Develop the vigor to implement and stick-to-task.
Find the deep motivation required for sustained performance.

Understand the value of obstacles:
Allow compassion and cultivate the ability to maintain high quality honesty and presence while facing daily challenges. Encourage a capacity for relational trust and confidence.

Increase the quality and depth of the culture:
Function with an awakened mind and an enlivened heart.

For some time, you have been aware of an employee who is underperforming or of a situation involving disruptive personality-conflicts. You may have several initiatives in place to address what has now become a critical issue. And still you find yourself thinking about it, talking about it, yet with little forward movement. The problem is consuming too much time, energy, and consideration, yet remains unresolved. You need to refocus on developing your business and leveraging your resources and you recognize that you need help to resolve this issue and move forward.

There are only three simple rules to follow when you are setting expectations with your team, a client or a co-worker.

• Keep every agreement you make.
• Make as few agreements as possible.
• If you are unable to keep the agreement, renegotiate the agreement with the person you made it with.

Creating and performing on simple and clear agreements is the first step in managing expectations.

When organizations struggle, it is often because their structure mirrors the complexity of those individuals or teams who are responsible for running them.  Is your organization symptomatic of problems you have in your personal life? It is very possible that what needs to be addressed, to put your company back on track, is not found in the Executive Committee or the ”difficult times” in the market place; it may rest within the part of your day you are least willing to talk about. 

The managers of your company don’t just manage people; they manage the system that helps you achieve your objectives. Your system or the way you run your business, gets you the results you are after, you must therefore work with your people to manage this system.

Organize your business around functions and the roles necessary to be responsible and accountable to successfully carryout those functions. Avoid the trap of organizing your company around personalities. Create the structure that is best for the well-being and growth of your company.

To communicate with your customers and clients you must be able to speak their language clearly and well. Your voice must emerge above the demands of their daily lives. Listen, and you will know your client and begin to establish a basis for why he or she will value your products or services.